An Odd Semester
by BIG Z1776
Summary: Where there's a girl's high school there's a boys' high school. And when one school's ship is unavailable the only logical course of action is to combine them. But with that course of action comes a few sacrifices on both sides, especially since one has a team that drives tanks and the other shoots rifles and machine guns most of the time. What could possibly go wrong?
1. Chapter 1

**Yeah I finally got around to editing this one. A few things have changed but its overall theme is relatively unchanged.**

Chapter 1 

School was set to begin its Spring Semester, and every student of Ooarai Girls High School was excited for it to begin. They'd set sail just last night from their home port and were supposed to be out on a rotational circuit around the Pacific where ships as large as academy ships can sail worry free of dealing with such things as shallow water and other ships. It was January, but where they were going no one would tell, but the problem this morning was that it was still chilly like it had been when they'd left port in Japan.

The ringing of her alarm clock awoke young Miho Nishizumi from her peaceful slumber. It was her own habit to get up early on the weekends so she could appreciate the free days that were Saturday and Sunday. But it was never very pleasant until she was fully awake. She reached out, waving around, trying to find the source of the noise she fell out of bed, and that sure woke her up. Once she had silenced her alarm she stood up, groaning slightly as she stretched and looked out the window to her right.

"Huh?" she mumbled to herself, seeing a thick blanket of fog outside her window. In her entire school career aboard academy ships she'd never seen fog so thick. She went to her window and saw that it too had a thin layer of condensation around its edges.

Then Miho heard a buzz from her desk where she kept her phone. She walked over and picked it up, and was surprised to see thirty texts and five missed calls, all from Saori, go figure, she saw the most recent text and read it.

_OMG Miporin did you hear? We're going back to port!_ The text read.

"Why would we be going back to port?" Miho wondered aloud, and then tapped the buttons on her phone.

_Why?_

Not even five seconds later Saori replied, _We're combining schools XDXDXD!_

"Combining?" Miho mumbled as she sat on her bed and tapped her phone in reply.

_Combining with which school?_

_Who else, Ooarai! Duh!_

Miho had to read that text again, it didn't make any sense. Why would they have to combine schools with themselves?

_? _Miho typed in, trying to get Saori to elaborate.

_Ooarai Boys High School! Their ship failed its five year inspection and it has to be drydocked for the semester. So the schoolboard decided to combine schools with us because our ships are identical and we have the same academic program. Isn't this awesome?!_

_I never heard about it, when are they joining? _Miho asked in her next text.

_TODAY! You can see their ship right next to us!_

"What?" Miho stuttered, and then looked out the window and sure enough, something she hadn't noticed before, immediately drew her attention. An identical island superstructure with the Ooarai crest upon it was shooting up out of the fog, "How did I miss that?"

_We're going to greet the boys when they come aboard. You coming? Saori texted again before Miho could respond._

_We?_ Miho texted.

_Me, Hana, and Yukari says she's on her way. Mako didn't want to get up._

"Figures," Miho laughed to herself, and then looked at the clock, "Oh why not?"

_OK, where are you? _

_The loading ramp. Hurry up! XOXO_

Miho put her phone down and then quickly grabbed a pair of jeans and slipped some socks on along with one of her long sleeved shirts, it was cold outside after all. She then snatched her purse, which she had bought while on a shopping spree with Saori, Hana, Yukari, and Mako, and put her phone inside, making certain she had her key in her pocket before heading out the door. But a sudden chilly wind made her rethink going out and she ran back inside to grab the same jacket that she and the Sensha-do Team had made for their matches. So slipping this added layer on she locked her door behind her and ran down the stairs to get to the loading ramp to find her friends.

It didn't take all that long before she was at her destination. It was on her side of the ship and her apartment building was directly above it. So it was only a matter of going to the nearest stairwell. She was quite surprised to see quite a few of the other girls of the school up and about, with many looking a bit more dressed up than they usually were. This sort of made Miho wonder if she should have added a little makeup or put on a less modest outfit. But the thought left as quickly as it came, she didn't really care all that much, she wasn't Saori.

"Miss Nishizumi!" a familiar voice called out from behind her as she walked down the stairs.

"Oh, good morning Yukari!" Miho waved, seeing her friend coming down the stairs to join her.

"Did you hear?" Yukari asked, practically vibrating with excitement.

"Yeah, am I missing something because I didn't hear about the boys combining with us until this morning."

"Well the schoolboard wanted to keep it quiet until they had exhausted every other option. The schools didn't want them to combine with another boys school, them being boys and all there might have been some incidents. But I only heard from Saori this morning. Apparently one of the Rabbit Team's boyfriends texted them about it and the word spread from there."

"Figures it was one of those girls," Miho giggled, knowing her youngest team, "But how are we supposed to get all those boys aboard?"

"Well apparently the board has been working on getting this set up since before Christmas when their ship failed its inspection," Yukari shrugged, "They didn't want us to worry about it or get excited and then be disappointed about the boys not coming."

"The Morals Committee isn't going to like this very much are they?" Miho giggled, imagining the complete anxiety attacks those three girls probably had upon hearing about this.

"Oh I bet not!" Yukari said, and this gave both of them a good laugh.

The two of them made it to the right location to see quite a crowd of girls had amassed along with a few adults with some carts of food and snacks to potentially sell to the newcomers.

"Miporin! Over here!" Miho and Yukari heard their friend Saori yell out.

Miho and Yukari followed the voice to Saori and Hana who were on one of the walkways crowded with girls wanting to greet the arriving boys. But the actual road in was blocked off so traffic could move. Miho saw that both Hana and especially Saori, had dressed for the occasion. Hana had applied a bit of make-up, which wasn't unusual for her, but she was wearing a pair of jeans that were quite tight and weren't what Miho would call modest. She was wearing a light blue hooded jacket which was about as bright as Saori's bright pink one. Saori had applied quite of make-up, and was wearing a pair of jeans with some of those fake jewels embedded into them with a jean skirt of the pants themselves. Miho also saw quite a few girls from the Sensha-do team around as well. The Rabbit Team was out in force standing just a few meters to left of the Anglerfish girls, Duck Team was a bit farther to the left, and Miho thought that she saw Anzu walking around near the vendors.

"Miho why didn't you wear that cute jacket I picked out for you?" Saori immediately whined, seeing Miho in the rather bland looking tank jacket instead of the great looking red coat with the fur-lined hood she'd picked out on their last shopping outing.

"Oh, I guess I forgot about it, sorry Saori," Miho shrugged slightly.

"And Yukari why are you dressed like that? This is your chance to have a boy to fall for you," Saori then turned on Yukari who was wearing a baggy pair of military style pants and a matching uniform jacket.

"But I don't get to wear this very much," Yukari countered, "Besides, there'll be plenty of time to look pretty later."

"First impressions are the key to getting a man to like you. What does this say?" Saori ticked, wagging her finger in a condescending tone.

"That I'm toasty warm?" Yukari replied.

"Yes-I mean no! You're not avoiding the question this time!" she fumed, turning to Yukari.

"Hey! You can't be here like this!" another familiar voice yelled out, and many of the girls turned to Midoriko Sono, Moyoko Gotou, and Nozomi Konparu standing there in their school uniforms and looking none too pleased, "This behavior isn't becoming of our standards as a school."

"But what about the boys? It's rude to not greet them!" Saori pleaded.

"But my boyfriend's coming aboard today!" someone else yelled out.

"It's only my brother!" another girl added.

The calls and complaints came in greater waves as many turned on the three third years or ignored them entirely. Sodoko and her team knew that this was one gathering that they seemed to be powerless to stop from happening. So she just huffed in irritation and left, leaving them all to their planned welcoming party of sorts.

At that moment the first of what was going to be a great many busses started rolling up the ramp and started opening up their doors and a whole lot of high school aged boys started walking out to cheers and greetings from the girls up on the catwalk above them. Many waved back, some searched for a family member, girlfriend or prospective girlfriend. All of them were wearing their own school uniform, which was a pair of dark slacks, and light blue suit jackets with the Ooarai crest on it along with their names. They all started taking their luggage off of the busses, many hoisting their large bags with little effort to try and impress the swarms of girls up above. A school counselor was directing them through to the main deck where the town and school themselves were located. Miho recognized the counselor as one of their own, and could tell that she was not too happy about having all these boys on their ship. But she was not the only one. There were male counselors as well, walking around with roll calls on clipboards along with maps as they shepherded the boys along, trying to keep them from interacting with the girls trying to greet them and get their attention.

Miho wasn't really one to get into something like this, and didn't exactly feel very comfortable waving and yelling like Saori was doing along with many of the girls around her. And neither was Yukari, who tugged on Miho's shoulder to gain her attention.

"Wow look at that! A Willis Jeep!" she said, pointing at four large military style trucks led by what she'd originally noticed, a replica Willis Jeep manufactured during and after World War Two, "Those must belong to the boys' Combat Team."

"Combat Team?" Miho asked, not quite sure what Yukari was talking about.

"It's the boys' version of tankery. They saw we got to fight with tanks for sport so they adopted some of the technologies developed for it and created their own sport based on infantry combat. No big guns, no vehicles, not even anything larger than a twenty millimeter. It's a bit of a ripoff of airsoft and paintball, but it's cool. Not as cool as tankery though," Yukari said with a smile, nudging Miho with her elbow.

"I guess not, it's just different," Miho said with a shrug.

"Very different, the only similarity is the time period they are limited to with their weapons and equipment."

"Wait a minute, where are they supposed to put this equipment?" Miho asked, more to herself than to Yukari.

"That's a good question. I'd guess they'd be told to put it near us, seeing as we're the closest thing to the same sport as there is."

"Well I didn't notice anything near the hangar they could use. Do you think they'll use our hangar?"

"I don't see why not, we trust it with our tanks, why not trust it with their stuff?"

The welcoming party didn't last all that long, and there wasn't the amount of co-ed interaction that Saori had been hoping for. And soon enough everyone was starting to file out of the loading bay to either go back to bed or hunt down someone to flirt with. Miho however didn't have that luxury, school started on Monday, and she needed to go to the hanger where they kept their tanks and speak with the Automotive Club about possible spaces for some new equipment like a pit that they'd just received the funding to make for getting underneath the tanks and working on the chassis and not having to roll around under the tank and be cramped below those steel behemoths. There was also pair of new jacks for lifting even the Tiger(P) clean off the ground to be able to change out anything from the road wheels entire leaf springs and shocks. They also had some new diagnostics gear that was able to be plugged into the tanks' onboard computers to see in great detail what all was wrong with them whenever a visual or audio examination didn't reveal the problem. But they were also having an issue with where to store their ammunition and spare parts. The problem was this, they had such a wide variety of tanks from so many sources that hardly anything from one tank to another was interchangeable. And this meant they had a large amount of stuff that needed to be stored, and stored securely because of its expensive and dangerous nature. This was a problem, especially with these boys now strutting around.

So Miho made her way there, seeing quite a few boys walking around with pieces of paper in hand, looking for wherever they were going to. Many of the girls also with some of the boys would wave hello to her and she'd wave back, adding a name if she recognized the face. Soon Miho was at the hanger and was quite surprised to see that those same four trucks she and Yukari had noticed were parked just outside the hanger and several boys wearing a different uniform than the one that the others were wearing were waiting behind the trucks.

These uniforms had olive green background with specks of tan, brown, and darker green all over them. On the back of each uniform's jacket they had their names and a patch on their shoulders matching the Ooarai crest. Their leader had a pair of silver bars on his collar and on his hat signifying some kind of rank. They also had some matching caps on their heads Miho saw that the several members of the Automotive Club were outside in their own orange jumpsuits, with smears of grease on them, as usual. They were speaking with one of the boys in some not-so-friendly tones as they gestured back forth between the garage and the trucks.

_Uh oh_, Miho grimaced, not too happy that there was already some head-butting going on.

"I'm telling you we don't have room for your trucks. We already have storage problems of our own," Hoshino was clearly heard saying as Miho walked up to the group.

"But we're not allowed to store this stuff in an unsecured location, your hanger is the only really safe place for us to put it. And if something happened to someone with this stuff it'll be my ass," the leader of the group said matching the irritated tone being taken by the girls he was arguing with.

"What's going on here?" Miho asked as she walked up and saw, up close, the irritation in the eyes of her mechanics/Tiger crew.

"Thank God you're here commander. These guys say they're putting their trucks and equipment in the hanger. But this place is tank team only," Nakajima said, looking right at the boy, "And we have some real storage issues here. We don't have room and last time I checked, you don't have permission."

"Listen we're not asking for much, just enough room to park our trucks until we can have our storage units here. Seriously you can't have that big of a storage issue. This hangar is huge," the guy groaned, "And my CO is going to get proof we do have permission anyway so it can't be that big a deal."

"Do you have any idea-"

"Nakajima it's alright," Miho said, trying to keep her calm, "I'm sure we can find someplace to put them. But Nakajima's right, we can't keep them here indefinitely."

"Oh it won't be indefinite. We'll have our own storage units here tomorrow and get them out of your way I promise. Our trucks are carrying our weapons, ammo, and the vast bulk of our equipment. This stuff is expensive, and dangerous."

"Oh a bunch of little stun guns, do you expect us to leave a tank out to protect them?" Hoshino huffed.

"Well if you think about it a tank is less dangerous than our guns in the wrong hands, first you need someone who can drive a tank. I'd imagine it's rather difficult and I would assume you don't just leave the keys left out unlocked. Second I would also assume you don't keep them loaded with ammunition, and the ammo you do have is locked away as well. And I also heard your tanks are programmed to be shut down remotely in case it was hijacked so that's another reason. But with our guns you can just pick it up, pop a magazine in, and start shooting. It's so simple in theory a chimp can do it," he stated with a well-rehearsed monologue.

"I actually saw that video on Youtube! That was hilarious how that monkey waved the gun around in the air and ran off with it!" Hoshino laughed, but then regained her composure.

"That was pretty good reasoning," Nakajima whispered to the other girls.

"I'm on the debate team," the boy shrugged, then saw the surprised faces on the girls, "And I also have good hearing."

The thing was, as much as Miho didn't want to admit it, the guy was right. There were so many complexities to driving a tank and making use of it. They did lock up the tanks and drain the tanks of diesel, they did store the ammo in a secured locker in the hanger, and they were notoriously difficult to use in all respects. But a gun was a different story entirely. These boys couldn't leave their weapons and equipment outside unsecured. But best not to admit it. It was a kind of unspoken rule of women, never admit a boy was correct because you'll never hear the end of it.

"Nakajima, see if you can fit their trucks into the hanger. If you need to move one of the tanks outside go ahead, I don't think anyone's going to or is able to steal one of them," Miho calmly ordered, "Only for the night though."

"Thanks, we'll be out of here by tomorrow," the boy breathed in relief.

"But which tank would we move?" she asked.

"The least dangerous I guess."

"The Type-89," every single one of the Leopon girls replied in tandem.

"But only if there is no room!" Tsuchiya added on, getting some eye rolls from some of the boys.

"Alright, don't touch anything!" Nakajima growled as she walked into the hanger as Suzuki and Tsuchiya opened the doors.

Miho couldn't help but shake her head and smile at how fervently protective the Automotive Club was being right now. To be fair she couldn't blame them, the reputation of boys being generally destructive was well known, especially to those girls who had brothers. And when you combined that kind of reputation with a group that treated their tanks like their own children you would expect such a butting of heads to happen if boys came anywhere near their tanks.

"Alright, bring 'em in boys!" the guy called out, signaling his drivers to start bringing their trucks into the hanger where they assumed that they would be safe.

The trucks were started up, their big diesels roaring to life, and were driven forward in a column into the hanger doors. As they drove forward, Miho heard the sound of a jeep driving up behind her and turned to see the vehicle in question stop to her left with two boys inside. The passenger got out, and signaled the driver to head into the hanger as he took out a folder. Miho assumed that this was the written permission that had been promised earlier, although it didn't seem to matter all that much since they were getting into the hanger without it. So she walked over to the boy who she noticed immediately was quite a looker. He was a full head taller than her, had a messy mop of light brown hair, and was in the same uniform as the other members of the combat team. But on his uniform was a trio of silver diamond shaped insignias. He also carried himself like someone who was in charge, yet didn't have the kind of strutting swagger that Miho would have assumed.

But when it came to her experience with Combat Team CO's the only reference point she had was her sister's boyfriend. He was the commander of Kuromorimine Boys High School's own championship Combat Team and was quite the show off and bragger. She never did like him very much, and neither did her mother, which made this one of the only things that her mother didn't like about her eldest daughter.

However it wasn't something that Miho could really say she did very well, she'd never had a boyfriend, and her mother wasn't a big fan of that. But the current situation aboard the ship with the boys being brought aboard could change that.

"I see we don't need this after all," the boy said, tapping the green folder against his palm.

"Your friend made quite a good case for it," Miho stated, getting his attention.

"Oh, I guess you're Miho Nishizumi," the guy said, "Kendo Motoya, I'm the Combat Team commander."

"Nice to meet you Kendo," Miho said respectfully.

"Likewise," he said with a smile, "We've heard a lot about how you and the tankery team saved both of our schools."

"I don't understand, both of our schools?" Miho asked, not quite understanding what he meant.

"Yeah, for each girls high school there's a boy's high school and our schools are no exception. They build these ships and schools in pairs you know. We're basically the same aside from a few minor details," Kendo chuckled, "What did you think us guys just grew out of holes in the ground whenever you're around?"

"I guess so. Wait a minute, Anzu and Momo said that they never saw our shutdown coming. Did your school have something to do with it?" Miho asked, now suspicious.

"Well…yes and no. I don't know the whole story so don't take my word for it. Apparently we were having some kind of stupid combination of rise of gas prices, which affected both ships, expensive mechanical issues aboard the ship, new renovations to our campus, a drop in the student population, and some bad monetary management."

"Wait, that was your fault!" Miho scoffed.

"Like I said I don't know the whole story," Kendo responded sheepishly, "But our sports teams not winning very many matches the entire fall semester might have had something to do with it too. Shoot our Combat Team didn't win a single Exhibition Match last semester! It's kinda why I'm the commander now."

"That must be part of it huh?" Miho growled, not liking that the Ooarai boys apparently didn't have a great reputation of being able to pull their own weight, "Well I sure hope that's changed, for all of our sakes."

"Don't worry, we hit rock bottom last time. There's only one way to go now right?" Kendo chuckled.

"Wait! Wait! Wait!" Hoshino's voice cried out in that moment from inside hanger where the boys driving the Combat Team's trucks were trying to squeeze in so they'd be safe.

At that moment there was a tremendous crashing noise with the sound metal falling onto concrete and wood crunching and shattering. It had come from the hanger, and predictably, the Automotive Club went absolutely nuts.

"Oops…"

"Now look at what you've done!"

"Those were our spare engine parts for the StuG you numbskulls!"

"You'd better start running because if anything's broken I'll break you!"

Kendo didn't bother looking over at the growing chaos. Instead he sighed heavily as he took his hand and rubbed along the ridge of his nose and shook his head. Miho didn't need to say anything, she knew what they were both thinking. It was going to be a long semester.

**Well I did decide to scratch off my last GuP story in favor of this one. I sort of set myself up for failure with that last attempt but this kind seemed a bit more feasible. So we'll see where this one takes us.**

**Next Chapter Preview: First day of a long semester.**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

School definitely seemed different this morning. Normally the first day was a time that most students loathed for one reason or another. But this morning was starting very differently. Miho noticed this immediately as she stepped out of her door and about bumped into a familiar face, quite literally. As she stepped out she was looking down at her bag to grab her key to lock the door and bumped into someone.

"Oh I'm sorry I didn't see you," Miho immediately apologized.

She took a moment to recognize him as Kendo Motoya, the commander of the boys Combat Team. He wasn't wearing the same uniform as the one he'd been wearing on Saturday. This time it was much more familiar. A black blazer had replaced the camouflage uniform over a white button up shirt, and some black pants and simple tennis shoes. On the front of the chest of his blazer was the Ooarai crest to finish off the school uniform.

"Oh, I guess I should apologize, I wasn't exactly paying attention," he said, holding up a piece of paper with a schedule printed on it, "I just got my schedule printed out this morning."

"I uh…guess you live in this building too?" Miho asked, rather awkwardly.

"Yeah…me and my roommate got lucky and got a room close to the school. He's the class president so he managed to get first dibs. Most of the rest of us are paired up in some of the old dorms on the edges of the ship. They've got quite a walk to school. Many of the others just took up residence in some of the old clubhouses you've got all around the ship."

"Still, how did they fit all of you?" Miho asked as the two of them started down the stairs.

"I asked that myself. Apparently our ships were designed hold something like twenty-five thousand students. And that's not with all the clubhouses around here. According to our class president most of the clubhouses that had to be revamped can hold five people normally, but with the current situation they actually squeezed in twice that number. Or so he says."

"So that's where they're putting most of you?" Miho asked as they now began walking up the sidewalk with several students, both boys and girls walking on either side.

"And he also said we squeezed in quadruple the number of guys into rooms that were traditionally meant for one person. But a couple of bunk beds and you can fit in four people. It's amazing how we all managed to fit in. All fifteen thousand of us," Kendo chuckled, "It's amazing how many spaces you can find when you really need to."

"Fifteen? I thought your numbers were comparable to ours?" Miho asked.

"Yeah well…" Kendo shrugged, looking kind of ashamed, "We don't have a record comparable to yours. At least you've had something to be proud of lately. Not like us, hard to get someone to want to go to a school with nothing of value."

Miho nodded, quietly understanding what Kendo was alluding to. She could tell it was something that Kendo was ashamed of, who wouldn't be?

"Miho, I wanted to thank you for keeping your girls from beating up my guys with a very large wrench. They may not look like they're appreciative, but believe me, they are," Kendo said after a few seconds of walking, "It's not really the way we wanted to start things out."

"Well it was an accident, it's okay. I'm just glad the spare parts weren't damaged. Those things are expensive," Miho laughed.

"We'll have our stuff out of your garage by day's end I assure you. The staff got a hold a pair of those containers off of a ship for us to keep our stuff. And I'd also like to apologize for the way we came across when we arrived. We should've known better than to be as expecting as we were. We're not exactly the people to be demanding."

"Oh, good, I'm sure the Automotive Club will appreciate that," Miho smiled, "And no need to apologize, your boys were told that they were to put their stuff there and we didn't know. It's just a failure to communicate on the part of the school board. You can't blame us for being protective of our tanks. After all, they are war machines and our Automotive Club treats them like their kids."

"Speaking of your grease girls where did they get that wrench anyway?"

"Oh that? It's for loosening the return rollers on the Tiger," Miho replied with an immediate knowledge that surprised Kendo.

"Man you girls sure know your stuff," Kendo whistled, appreciating the show of knowledge.

"Well we did win nationals, so I guess we do," Miho shrugged, "Mind if I asked about what happened with your ship?"

"Yeah there's a few rumors about what happened. Some say it was engine problems, others have said it was a problem with hull integrity. Our ship is pretty old so it wasn't unexpected. Either way there wasn't anything we could have done. The emails that went out said it wasn't a maintenance thing, it was just something that happened."

"That's too bad," Miho said, "Although it's not like we don't like having you, a lot of the girls are really excited about having the boys here."

"Thanks, we're all pretty glad we're at sea instead of stuffed in a makeshift warehouse. There's nothing quite like being at sea."

"Well that depends on what ship you're on."

"I know that's the truth," Kendo smiled, "Hey I saw some of your matches on Youtube last night, impressive, but I'd also say you were pretty lucky in a few matches," Kendo replied, "And I know luck when I see it, we should know, we haven't had any for the past five or six years."

"How do you know? It took some real skill to do some of the things our team did. Like against Kuromoromine, the Rabbit took out the Elephant and the Jagdtiger. And what Turtle did against Pravda that was real skill."

"Oh I'm not saying that you girls don't have a great deal of skill. That match against Anzio and especially your match against Kuromorimine were great, I loved watching them. But it seemed to me you were lucky that you managed to get past Saunders at all, if they'd squeezed the trigger a few seconds sooner we may not be here," Kendo replied, defending his position.

"Well, they didn't and here we are," Miho replied even more testily.

"Uh…Miporin?" a voice quietly interrupted as the two students now stood in front of the school.

It was Saori, Hana, Mako, and Yukari. They were standing there looking at Miho and Kendo, and the looks on their faces showed their great surprise at Miho's considerable hostility towards Kendo. Miho herself suddenly reflected on the way the conversation had gone. And was surprised and somewhat embarrassed she'd gotten so hostile. This wasn't like her at all, and she didn't know why.

"Hey!" a voice yelled out, "Kendo, our classes are over here pal."

It was one of the other boys, waving at Kendo. Both Miho and Kendo saw that indeed there were new separate buildings to the school. The boys were going though one way, and the girls were going through the other. At each entrance were the schools' respective Morals Committees taking attendance as they all made their way into school. The entrance near the boys seemed to predominantly open up into a separate part of the parking lot that was now crowded with portable buildings two floors high. On their walls were lockers with overhanging roofs keeping them somewhat out of the elements. Miho had seen them being erected late Saturday night and all day Sunday. There were dozens of them, arranged on any flat ground they could be placed. Some were mere feet from the main school building, blocking the view of any windows they were in front of, others were out into the parking lot and some were even on the tank grounds with tall mounds of dirt topped with a chain link fence keeping them well separated from the tankery team's domain. But they hardly ever used it, preferring to use the open and forested ground just next to the campus instead of the sandy patch.

"Miho are you alright?" Hana spoke out as Miho and Kendo split.

"Huh," Miho stammered, "Yeah, why?"

"Well…" Yukari started quietly.

"You and Kendo didn't look like you were exactly hitting it off," Saori finished, slightly concerned.

"He-he…" Miho started, feeling another wave of frustration wash over her as she thought about what he'd said.

"What could he have said to get under your skin Miho?" Hana asked, not knowing what it took to get Miho even slightly irritated. They'd never seen Miho get angry.

"He said we were lucky that we won the tournament," Miho huffed crossing her arms over chest defensively.

"Well we kinda were lucky, in a way," Hana answered.

"But why would that get you angry? People have said worse and you didn't get angry," Yukari asked.

"Because…" Miho immediately tried to answer but couldn't. But Saori instantly jumped to a conclusion, and just like Saori she blabbed it out.

"Because they weren't cute boys! Oh my gosh Miporin you like him!" she giggled loudly, gaining quite a bit attention from passers-by.

Miho immediately blushed a hot red, and her defensive temper flared slightly.

"No I don't!" Miho snapped, casting a nervous side glance to the side where she could still see Kendo speaking with some of the boys who were in a group together.

"Denial! It's true!" Saori gushed again, starting to descend into a fit of giddiness.

Miho just blushed a hotter red, feeling the blood spreading through her cheeks as she grew ever more uncomfortable. It was true she'd never had a boyfriend, and had never really had experience with dealing with a serious crush, especially with Saori. But with her track record for being a bit of love hound, looking for any opportunity to meet a boy Miho shouldn't have been surprised. However it didn't make her any less irritated, she didn't like Kendo, and she couldn't get Saori to stop.

"Oh, school's about to start, we'd better get inside," Yukari said awkwardly, trying to get her friends to move on before things got really weird. Especially since they'd never seen Miho like this and didn't want to cross a line without knowing it.

"Fine," Miho sighed, almost grateful for the new distraction.

The five girls walked into school and immediately split up, heading out towards their respective first classes. Miho really needed school right now, if only to get her mind off of the events of this morning. Unfortunately, she knew that she hadn't seen the last of him, he lived in the same building, and went to the same school. It was going to be a long semester.

Kendo too felt the same way. He wasn't used to having a roommate. Especially his own class president who was a third year, and not a second year like himself. Another thing was that he and the other guys of Ooarai Boys High School were pretty much confined to these somewhat cramped and humid portables. There were dehumidifiers for each building but here in the Pacific they didn't do as much good as the guys inside would have liked. But thankfully, their teachers were suffering the same way, and they were allowed to at least keep the windows open to get some cool breeze through the room and were also allowed to take off their blazers.

But what he wasn't used to most of all was being in a, partially, co-ed school. He, like the others in his school, had been excited for the possibility to be in a co-ed environment. However now that he was here he had already gotten off on the wrong foot with some of the girls. Miho Nishizumi was pretty much his opposite number at this school. He was the leader of the Ooarai Combat Team, and Miho was the leader of the girls' Tankery Team. But the difference for him was that she'd actually managed to do something useful in her tenure as commander. He on the other hadn't had the chance quite yet. He'd received command after the last commander of the team had pretty much botched the job after being picked because his father was on the school board, making the team a complete mess of disorganization, no practice schedule, poor discipline in matches, and a general laughing stock just so he could have something on his resume. The membership on the team had plummeted, forcing them to completely dissolve their fourth platoon because they didn't have enough people to keep it effective, not like any of them were all that effective to begin with.

So Kendo had been given the job. He had been the only second year to ever hold the position of commander in Ooarai's history other than Miho herself, although she didn't count because of the fact she was the girls' tankery commander. Kendo had only been a squad leader, but was at least a good one. The three platoon leaders were all third years, but didn't want to be the overall commander because each of them were best friends and didn't want to be put into a position of authority over one another, and they were the ones who'd voted Kendo into the predicament he found himself in.

"Hey Kendo," one of the platoon leaders in question called out as he was walking in between the portable buildings, looking for his own locker before class began, "What's the plan today?"

"Oh, Shigeki," Kendo replied, seeing the similarly sized third year walking over, "I don't think we'll have practice today. Everyone's picking their elective today so all we'll be doing is getting our stuff into those boxes."

"Alright makes sense. So any plans as to what we're doing tomorrow?" Shigeki asked again.

"Probably get everyone organized into platoons, the emails I've gotten saying who's going to stay on the team pretty much match numbers with what we ended with. But we did lose a few guys and got some new ones as replacements," Kendo replied, "We should also get some uniforms to the ones who are new so we can start with some PT the next day. I'd bet hardly anyone worked out or got into any sort of shape over the break."

"You're not wrong there," Shigeki chuckled, "What about weapons? Everyone turned in their stuff after the end of the season so we might want to at least get the new guys used to carrying them."

"No, we'll need to weed out the weak before we do that. And there's no sense in trying to convince me Shigeki, we're not here to show off for the girls. I'd actually like to win a few matches this time around."

"Well we can do both," Shigeki chuckled.

Kendo just shook his head, he'd always known Shigeki, he had been his own squad leader as a first year, and later his platoon leader until he'd been given the position of commander. Shigeki had always fancied himself a ladies' man and bragged about his girlfriends all the time, the names and hair colors changing almost daily to the point that Kendo had stopped believing him, although it didn't stop him from still bragging.

"We'll need some of our guys to stand watch tonight, like we did at our ship. You think you can find six guys to run four hour shifts? Make sure they're guys we had from last year," Kendo said.

"You don't trust our accommodations I assume?"

"Well…no. It's also just to try and get the guys back into a rhythm, with everything that's been happening we could all use some kind of normalcy."

"I knew it was the right choice voting you for leader. I think we'll be alright this year. We've got good equipment, decent weapons, and now we've got a leader," Shigeki chuckled, seeing how well suited he now realized Kendo was for the leadership of the team, "I'll take a look at who we had on our watch schedule, and keep going with that."

"We still haven't had a practice, much less a match. Don't put me on a pedestal," Kendo replied, feeling the pressure of his responsibility falling like a ton of bricks, "You might not like what happens if you're expecting great things."

"I'm not expecting you to win the championship Kendo, just…a winning season at best. I know we can do it," Shigeki shrugged, patting him on the shoulder, "Listen I'll take care of the guys standing watch, you just get a schedule worked out our first match against Koala is next week."

"I know, thankfully we didn't get a really dominating opponent to start out with."

"Yeah, we could've drawn Pravda, Saunders, or Kuromorimine. We might be able to get our season off to the right start this time around."

"Yeah, hopefully, listen we gotta get to class, I'll see you and the other guys at the tank team's hanger so we can get our stuff situated."

"You sure it's our stuff you're wanting to take care of?"

"Wha-what are you talking about?" Kendo stuttered.

"Please, we all saw you walk to school with Miho Nishizumi, you dog you," Shigeki teased, playfully slugging his commander in the shoulder.

"We're in the same building and we were just talking. Besides, I don't think we parted on the best of terms. She thinks I believe that her team got off on luck alone."

"Well they kinda did," Shigeki shrugged.

"Well you go say that to one of the girls on the team. You might want to grab your helmet and faceplate first," Kendo replied.

"Please, what are they gonna do? They're just girls," Shigeki laughed.

"_That's_ why. Haven't you heard of the saying 'Hell hath no fury like a woman's scorn' before?"

"Oh that's just an urban legend," Shigeki laughed, not really taking it seriously, "If you ever need some pointers on women you know who to call."

"Yeah, not you," Kendo laughed as well, "Seriously, I don't wanna be late. I'll see you later."

Kendo turned and walked out to the portable labelled with the number on his schedule where he'd start his first day of class. It went like any first day went, slow, and all he wanted to do was just get to the point where he got to pick what he was going to do. So, finally, lunch came around, later than normally would have if he was back at their own ship. It made sense, they only had one cafeteria for both schools, so it made sense for the guys to go afterwards. After all, why would they shorten their hosts' own lunch period when they weren't really the cause of the boys' predicament?

Lunch was around the time that Kendo knew his team mates would be choosing whether or not to return for the exhibition season. He'd already gotten his sheet in, and saw several of his team mates with their sheets, and thankfully, the more experienced guys were staying after stopping by and asking what they were going to do. He walked the cafeteria a little bit, looking to see if anyone new was looking to join the team, which he was really hoping for. They could use all the help they could get given their history.

But unfortunately, not many decided to join. They were choosing to join other clubs and sports like baseball, kendo, martial arts, football, basketball, or soccer, which he couldn't blame them for. No one lost so badly and so often last semester than the Combat Team. But, that could change, the Combat Team had quite a few guys who knew how to fight effectively, they had some leadership, and they had some effective weapons to work with. However, the one thing that Kendo was uncertain of was the leadership of their leader, himself.

The day had gone fairly well, the atmosphere was one of complete excitement that had been tampered down with disappointment with the realization that the school officials were doing everything they could to separate them. Saori in particular was pretty down about that particular development. She had repeatedly groaned sourly about the fact that the two sexes were separated as they were, in her words 'it's not natural and it's not fair.'

This easily put Miho in a somewhat better mood. There was something slightly amusing about watching Saori pout and the mood pervading the school was new to her. It was one of expectant giddiness, and Miho herself sort of felt herself caught up in it. It wasn't unexpected really, the school was doing great, she had a great bunch of friends, the tankery team was just hitting its stride, and she couldn't ignore the possibility she might soon find herself with a boyfriend. All in all it was harder to be apprehensive than it was to be excited. This was the kind of thing that really made the day fly by for her.

So once the final bell rang Miho found herself walking out with her friends out to the hangar. She had a pretty simple day planned out, just a quick inspection run to make sure their tanks were all good to go for practice the next day. However one thing she wasn't expecting was the appearance of some new girls standing in front of the hanger.

Miho recognized the three of them as the lone members of the Archery Club, their second year leader, Yoshie Miyamoto, and the first year twins Kunie and Iria Kitamura. Yoshie was a reasonably tall girl with blue eyes and blonde hair that was tied into a messy bun and had a fiery personality, seeking to brag all the time about her and her team's prowess with their bows at competition. Kunie and Iria were, as expected, the same short petite stature and build, same red hair, and green eyes. But they made a point to differentiate from the other. Kunie had her hair long and straight through a tough period of grooming and straightening while Iria let her hair go wild with its curly mass pulled into a high pony tail. These two girls were intensely competitive, and were known to spend hours trying to best the other at just about anything that struck their fancy, and like Yoshie they were very god shots, having been in the now disbanded Rifle Club.

"Miss Nishizumi?" Yoshie called out, walking up to Miho.

"Oh you don't need to be formal with me Yoshie," Miho smiled, "Are you girls here to join the team?"

"Yeah, unfortunately the school wouldn't let us have archery as an option with the season over," Iria grumbled.

"So we decided you could use some girls with our skillset and we could have fun at the same time," Kunie finished.

"Well…we'd like to get you started but we don't have spare tanks," Miho sadly replied.

"We know," Yoshie replied, "But apparently we talked with Yuzu and we found out you're missing one according some old records we found in the library."

"Missing one?" Yukari asked, "How'd you find any records of it? We scoured the ship trying to find any traces of other tanks."

"It was in the old school financial records room under lock and key. Students weren't allowed to look at them because they had teachers' salaries on them or something like that."

"Well what kind of tank was it?"

"We don't know," Iria replied, "The ink was all blurry, but we could make out an 'M' and a two right next to each other and a blurry number right next to it."

"An M series tank? It's obviously an American model, only the Americans numbered their tanks like that. And you said it was two digits with the first being a two?" Yukari asked.

"Yes, and a medium length name after it. Like I said the file was just about ruined, it was a miracle we found it at all," Kunie said.

"Hmm…it could be one of three tanks, a Locust, a Chaffee, or, best of all, a Pershing," Yukari said.

"The records said it went missing shortly after the tankery team was disbanded and they never found it again."

"Ooh…a ghost tank," Saori noted.

"If it's out there we can find it," Yoshie said proudly.

"I don't know, we tried to find all the tanks we could before our last round against Kuromorimine and only found the Type-3. I don't know if that tank is even still aboard," Miho shrugged.

"It was probably stripped down and sold off piece by piece. If it is on board it's probably just a hull if anything by now," Yukari pointed out.

"But if we find it will you promise to let us use it?" Iria pleaded.

"I don't see why not," Hana replied, getting nods of agreement from the other girls of Anglerfish.

"If you can find it it's all yours. But if you're going to be on the team you'll need to learn all the parts of a tank, how to drive them, aim and fire their guns, and care for tanks. We can always use new crew, even if we don't have a tank for you," Miho said.

"Awesome, you won't regret this Commander," Yoshie said excitedly.

At that moment Miho saw the familiar form of Kendo, her male counter-part, and the same guy she didn't get along with all that well. She saw that he wasn't alone, nine other boys were with him, all of them wearing their normal school uniforms. But most had the dark blazers off for good reason, it wasn't all that cool out here. Miho immediately made a point of directing her attention away from them and walked into the hangar to that most of the girls were already inside, talking with one another about whatever it was that had happened today or they were looking forward to happening. Miho went over to the Automotive Club girls who were tooling around with the new lift making sure it was functioning properly.

"How are the tanks looking?" Miho asked, walking over to them, and knew the answer before they could respond just from the happy looks on their face.

"We're all good here commander. They're looking just fine," Hoshino responded first, confirming Miho's thoughts.

"You think we can take them out today and run a quick inspection?" Miho inquired.

"Of course," Nakajima stated, "But we can't really get all of the tanks out of here right now. We're waiting for those boys to move their trucks out of the way. The school board put a couple of cargo containers right next to the outside wall over there with a chain link fence topped with barbed wire."

"So they have a place for their stuff now," Miho said, somewhat pleased to know that there was now no need for them to share space with one another.

Miho now noted that the boys were now grabbing their keys to the three trucks and the jeep from the locker where to the tanks themselves were located.

"Hey Miho, isn't that the boy you were arguing with this morning?" Mako asked as she noticed the boys starting to jump into their trucks while many of the girls kept a rather close on them, especially the Automotive Club who knew from first-hand experience what had happened the last time the boys had driven their trucks. The shattered wooden box outside was a reminder of that.

"Yeah," Miho replied, keeping her back turned.

"Well don't you want to at least try and apologize?" Hana asked.

"Apologize? For what?" Miho said sharply.

"Well you did get mad at him for him pointing out something that was true," Saori ticked.

"But he-he," Miho stuttered again, and grew frustrated with this rewind of this morning's conversation with her friends on this exact matter.

"Besides, he is kinda cute," Saori added on again, "And besides I'd bet that he likes you too. Look at the way he looks away whenever you look at him."

"How could he like me after that argument we had this morning?" Miho asked curiously, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Oh I know these things Miporin, trust me," Saori bragged.

"But you've never had a boyfriend Saori," Yukari pointed out.

"Hey! That's not my fault," Saori fumed, "I bet in less than a week I'll be in a relationship."

"You do tend to flirt a bit too much Saori," Mako said plainly, bored with the conversation.

"That's how you let boys know that you like them. They can't tell otherwise," Saori responded.

"Yes we can!" one of the boys called out from where he was sitting on top of the truck's cab with his feet hanging in front of the windshield.

Some of the other boys laughed at that as Saori blushed a bright red.

"Hey don't you have boxes to run over?!" Hoshino snapped, surprising everyone including herself at her outburst.

"Nah, we only do that on Saturdays," the same boy joked, getting annoyed looks from some of the girls now, especially the Automotive club.

"Shinpo, shutup!" Kendo now snapped back, walking out from behind the first truck.

"Yes oh fearless leader!" the boy known as Shinpo said with a hearty chuckle.

"We'll get these trucks out of your way," Kendo yelled over to Miho who nodded with a neutral expression, "Let's go fellas."

With that the trucks' diesel engines started up and they began rolling out through one of the other doors that had been opened up for them. This time all three trucks were driven out without incident, much to the girls' relief seeing as they had quite a few boxes that were stacked around that needed homes. Miho now saw that the whole team was present and decided to let everyone go out on their own to get reacquainted with their tanks and give them a quick once over.

"Okay everyone mount up and get reacquainted with your tanks. Take a drive to the front of the ship and back. Take note of anything that you see that's not quite right with your tanks, after that come back to the hangar and make sure you let the Automotive Club know about anything that's wrong with your tanks."

"Hey Miho," Anzu called out walking over as the others were starting to get into their tanks, "Got a minute?"

"Of course," Miho responded.

"I managed to get us a match next week against Koala. Well, they actually asked for the match, and we agreed," Anzu said nonchalantly.

"Oh that's great," Miho smiled, "Koala will be a good way to get back into competition."

"Part of the reason is that the boys have their first match against Koala the day after we have ours. Seeing as both schools are going to be in the same place it seemed like a no brainer," Anzu informed Miho.

"I guess that makes sense," Miho shrugged seeing the logic of it all.

"But there was something else," Anzu said, "I was talking with the boys' class president and he asked me if I'd put out the word that they're having a match and invited us to come watch. You think you can make an announcement later, just to see if any of the girls are interested?"

"Oh, I think that'll be fine," Miho said partly through her teeth, she had some stuff to do right before that match and some of her classes were going to be a lot of work.

"Great!" she said, grabbing Miho around the shoulder, "Looking forward to it. Oh, he also said he'd pay us back by doing the same and inviting the boys to our match."

Miho saw some of the tanks were already started up and the Char, Type-89, and Type-3 were already rolling out the doors with the Tiger(P) right behind them as the StuG was starting up. She walked over to her own tank that was idling as it waited for its commander. Everyone was poking out of their respective hatches, not really wanting to be inside the stuffy tank when they didn't need to.

"Are you ready to go Miho?" Yukari asked, brimming with excitement like she did any time they got into their tank.

"Of course," Miho said, climbing up the hull and plopping down into the commander's cupola to make sure everything was as it should be inside before ordering Mako forward following the M3 Lee.

The tanks all rolled out of the hangar, and Miho saw the line of three trucks off to her right with those same boys unloading crates and cases from the beds and depositing them in a pair of green containers surrounded by a fence. She couldn't help but notice that when she tried sneaking a look at Kendo who was talking to three of the boys he too chanced a look at her, and averted his eyes the moment they locked. Miho too did the same thing, and immediately remembered what Saori had said.

_Was it true? Do I actually like him? Does he like me? What is happening on this ship?!_

**There we are, another calm chapter with some hints as to what all is gonna happen later on involving some schools that are known to exist in their "league" so to speak. I haven't yet picked out what tanks Koala will use, but if anyone has any suggestions I'd like to hear them. I kinda forgot what tanks they use, I remember that someone told me last time I had this chapter posted but I sort of forgot.**

**Another thing is that some of you will think that Miho wasn't very in character earlier when she was talking to Kendo. Before you start running your mouths remember its two chapters in, a lot hasn't been told about Miho's past personal life outside her relationship with her family so I'll be exploring that shortly, and I will create a reason for her to act a little differently and it'll be something she'll have to work at and develop.**

**Next Chapter Preview: Practice and romance, it can happen at the same time.**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

It had been several days since school started, routines were solidified, classes were settled, and things were beginning to settle into some form of normalcy. The presence of the boys and their large complex of temporary portable buildings had become something that girls of Ooarai were no longer surprised to see in front of their building. The separate entrances for the girls and guys had been abandoned after quite a few guys had gone in through the girls' entrance and were counted absent even though they were clearly at school. Several other new portables had been brought in for the gym classes to use for the guys to use for changing into their work out clothes and some new ones for showers that had been patched into the ship's water mains with a long hose.

The girls' own situations had changed very little. The tankery team had been practicing, letting the three new girls hitch a ride with each team to get some experience with operating the tanks. This had led Miho to a new idea, she'd had each team switch tanks and mix up crews and assignments to give themselves the flexibility to adequately man other tanks or positions in the event of someone being sick, hurt, or otherwise unavailable. So far it was going as well as one could expect, some tanks had found themselves stuck due to a lack of experience, others had seen shells miss entirely from poor marksmanship and strike hundreds of feet from the targets. A few girls had broken quite a few nails and jammed or pinched their fingers from bad loading technique. But, thankfully, these exercises were meant to acquaint the girls with positions that they might need to occupy later on.

But the closing date of their match with Koala Forest put these plans off, along with assurances that no one had any upcoming distractions. So Miho had gotten into the groove once again of getting everyone trained up. Yukari had downloaded the match of Koala Forest vs. Viking Fisheries from the tournament for all to see on Friday after practice so that they would be able to get an idea of not only what tanks they use but how they used them. But first, they had some practice to get done. Right now they were all just looking their tanks over before heading out.

"Hey Nakajima how's Leopon doing?" Miho asked, walking over to the big gun of the team, their prized Porsche Tiger. It had a bit of a hiccup yesterday and their Dragon Wagon had to tow it back because the ship's police department said it was blocking traffic. Miho had feared the worst, but she could hear the Tiger idling placidly in its spot as the Automotive Club was tightening up the tracks and going over their baby one last time.

"Oh it was the gear box again. We'll spend the weekend taking it apart and doing the necessary overhaul. If the job's too big we can still get it back in for the match and order a replacement. We had a warranty on it that'll cover the cost don't worry about the money," Nakajima smiled, patting her tank.

Miho sighed in relief, something like a full gear box was a huge investment. She didn't quite understand the inner workings of insurance but she was sure glad the Automotive girls knew. She wasn't really responsible for the monetary aspect of the team, but she liked to cover all bases just to be sure.

"Well take it easy on your tank. Don't feel the need to force things today. We're so close to our first match we can't afford to lose you girls."

"We'll be fine boss."

"Where's Anzu?" Miho now heard Yuzu ask behind her. She turned to see Yuzu and Momo walking into the hangar carrying their school bags.

"I haven't seen her since this lunch," Momo responded.

"What's going on?" Miho asked.

"Anzu hasn't been acting the same since school started. We thought she'd been working on school stuff, but her schedule doesn't reflect that," Yuzu affirmed.

"It's not like her to just disappear," Saori noted from where she and several others girls had gathered around to listen.

"Maybe it has to do with that boy we saw her hanging out with on the way here," Azusa from Rabbit team piped up.

"She was what?" Momo stuttered, "Were they…"

"I didn't see anything really, just them holding hands and walking together."

"I didn't know she had a boyfriend," Yuzu murmured.

"What if he's not her boyfriend?" Miho asked.

"Who else could it be?" Saori said, "Miho you don't just walk around holding hands with a friend."

"Well…I've never had a boyfriend," Miho replied, "And my sister never really had one until we were older and had our own lives. It's not like I've had much experience with boys first hand since…"

"Since when?" Hana asked.

"Well the first time I…" Miho trailed off, but then her face changed and she became a little bit distant in remembrance of something she now thought better to not share, "I don't want to talk about it."

Saori seemed get it, or at least thought she got it, and nodded.

"It's alright Miho, we won't press you," Hana said gently.

But before anyone who really wanted to know this particular story Anzu finally arrived looking pretty uppity. She seemed to almost bounce around with a great big smile on her face. Most of the girls who'd had a boyfriend at any time knew what she was in a good mood for. Being close to someone generally puts you into a good mood, and having just about everything else going well helps with putting a girl into a giddy state of mind.

"Hey girls are we ready to go?" Anzu asked loudly as she put her bag down just inside the entrance.

"Where were you Anzu?" Yuzu asked, curious.

"I was just delayed," Anzu waved off nonchalantly.

"Delayed by who?" Saori asked, grinning widely.

"My boyfriend," Anzu replied smugly, if not a bit too smugly.

"We didn't know you had a boyfriend," Momo asked.

"Well we've just started really going out in the past week. We met during the break, and since school started things have got…complicated," Anzu waved off.

"Who is he?" Yuzu asked.

"He's the boys' class president. He and I met when both the boys and girls student councils had to meet with the school board last December," she replied.

"Wow, what're the odds?" Saori giggled.

"He's a bit of a smoothy, I think he accidentally picked up my bag at the meeting just to have an excuse to talk with me," Anzu giggled, "And he's been very nice, a real gentleman."

"Sounds like he's desperate to me," Momo grumbled.

"What's the matter Momo, are you jealous?" Anzu responded.

"Wha-what? No I'm not!" Momo snapped and Anzu ignored her and walked to her tank.

"Are we gonna get going or what?" Anzu piped up now, moving the subject to the practice they were supposed to get going.

"Right, how about a four team match? That's the strategy we'll try in our next match," Miho asked, "Let's go with Hippo and Turtle, you two teams will be working together in matches so you should get used to working together. Leopon and Duck you'll be working together. Rabbit you'll be with Anglerfish and Anteater you and Mallard will be together. These teams aren't solidified so let's just see what happens."

"Wow, it's going to be absolute chaos out there," Erwin chuckled, "It reminds me of the melee of Sekigahara."

"It's more like the Battle of Trafalgar," Caesar replied.

"Clearly it's the Battle of Austerlitz," Saemonza finally added.

"That's it!" every single one of the girls of Hippo team yelled out.

"Go to each corner of the training field and we begin on the go," Miho called out.

"Okay," everyone responded.

"Panzer vor."

The big Maybach diesel of the Panzer IV roared to life as Mako carefully drove the big tank out of the hangar behind Rabbit Team. The other team made up of the two German assault guns, Hippo and Turtle, were already roaring off down the road while Leopon in their big Porsche Tiger and the much smaller but much faster Type 89 went off in a different direction at a slower pace. Their tanks were all moving around with no real trouble showing as they all went their separate directions.

But also out here were the now always present boys of the Combat Team. For the past few days they'd been gone most of the time running around the ship, going back and forth, staying clear of the training grounds that the tanks called home. Kendo had told her after their first day that he was going to be getting his team into some form of physical shape before giving them their weapons and equipment and getting them training on it. But that was several days ago, and Miho, as was usual by now, looked over at the boys' little niche and was surprised to see them all standing around wearing their full uniforms, with many wearing their helmets and protective faceplates or holding them tucked under their arms. The team was also holding their rifles, submachine guns, machine guns, and their two piece machine guns with several of the guys holding onto boxes of ammunition. A group of five guys were wearing big boxy radios, crowding around trying to check to be sure that they worked.

Miho hadn't seen the boys in their full combat uniforms and was quite surprised with just how intimidating they looked in their uniforms with their weapons in hand and their faceplates over their faces. She could also tell that the boys thought they looked pretty good as well, as many tried looking as good as they could as the girls drove by in their tanks.

"Miho!" a voice called out, catching her attention.

It was Kendo, he was waving his hand to her as he stepped out of a small group of guys that had been gathered around him. In his hand he was holding a folded up map that he had been going over with the rest of what could have only been the platoon leaders for the Combat Team.

"Mako stop the tank," Miho ordered calmly.

The Panzer IV halted on her order as expected, and Kendo walked up beside it.

"Are your tanks heading out to scrimmage?" Kendo asked.

"Of course," Miho replied, "Why? Is that what you were planning on doing?"

"Well I was planning on us just doing some cross country PT until your team rolled out of the hangar," Kendo groaned.

"I see," Miho said, not quite getting the point Kendo was driving at.

"It's not a big deal right now we can take our usual long route and go through town but tomorrow we really do need to start getting some field time. You think I can meet you after your practice so we can try and work some borders out so we can both use the areas we need?"

"Sure, I don't see why not," Miho shrugged, not seeing anything wrong with just getting something done so her team's counterparts could get the practice time that they needed.

"Okay thanks, what time are you expecting to be done?" Kendo asked.

"Oh anywhere from six thirty to seven, it kinda depends on how aggressive my team is today in practice."

"Hmm…our practices tend to go a bit later, you mind meeting back at the apartment? I'll bring a map and our practice schedule. And we can work out what we need to do then."

"Okay, I guess that works. Just knock on my door," Miho said indifferently, but inside her tank the mood that had just sparked off was a much different one. Inside the tank Saori was taking in every word along with the entire crew, except for Mako, who was starting to fall asleep again from not really having anything to do.

"Alright, I'll see ya then I guess," Kendo replied with a nod, backing up and turned to his one hundred and forty-eight member team, each one of them having big grins plastered on their faces.

"Mako, let's go," Miho ordered calmly as she poked her head down into the turret, not quite realizing what her perfectly innocent conversation had sounded like, and by definition was. She was immediately confronted by the giddy Saori.

"Ohmigosh Miporin he just asked you out!" she said proudly.

"Huh? He didn't ask me on a date," Miho responded, confusion written on her face, "He just wanted to talk a few things over."

"Miho, you do know what just happened right?" Hana asked calmly, a little concerned with how oblivious Miho seemed to be with the facts of her conversation.

"Kendo just needed to coordinate his team's practice with ours so we don't get in each other's way. What's wrong with that?"

"You just invited a boy to your apartment," Mako said calmly as she drove the Anglerfish onto the dirt track at a fast pace to catch up with Rabbit.

"So what I…" Miho started to say but then went over her conversation with Kendo once more and then it all hit her at once, "I just invited him to my room. Oh no…"

* * *

><p>Kendo too didn't think much of it until he saw the grins on his teammates' faces, especially Shigeki.<p>

"My boy's becoming a man," Shigeki called out proudly.

"What are you talking about Shigeki?" Kendo said tucking his map into his pocket as he began planning his team's new practice since the tanks were already roaming the practice field.

"You're already being invited to a girl's room dude, she must have the hots for ya," the leader of second platoon, a very strongly built third year named Shuusaku Hoshi, said definitively.

"We live two floors apart, it's just more convenient for talking practice for the team," Kendo shrugged, brushing the whole thing off as just the hormone twisted views of his team mates.

"Oh real convenient," Kendo heard someone chuckle in the back of second platoon.

"Oh shut up already, let's get to work," Kendo ordered, "Fall in!"

Just like that the gaggles of guys in full combat equipment and armed with their assigned weaponry quickly shuffled into their three platoons and the lone recon squad in the back. Their team was organized a bit differently than most other Combat Teams, but this was due to necessity. Most schools had four to six platoons normally numbering anywhere from thirty to fifty with varying numbers of squads and squad strengths. But Ooarai's team found itself having to make use of three slightly enlarged forty-man platoons and an independent reconnaissance squad of eight.

Their platoons had four squads instead of their normal three. They had an extra pair of machine guns and a spare meant for replacing a malfunctioning one which they handed out to enlarge their weapons squads with an additional weapon that gave them much more firepower power than their competitors had. Their squads had downsized as a result, with each squad now having only ten members with each one having two automatic weapons, a Thompson and a Bren, with the rest having Gewehr 43 semi-automatic rifles. Their team lived and died by the sheer amount of firepower they could put onto their opponents, which meant that they would have to learn how to use that firepower. This was especially true since many of their members were brand new, and had joined this semester after a great number of their experienced team mates had quit and/or transferred, depending on how polite they were about the whole situation.

But the one thing that Kendo was looking forward to was his recon squad which he'd formed from their best shots and craftiest fighters. These guys weren't really meant to be deployed in force like other recon units were used in the other schools, instead they were meant to split up into their two man teams, sniper and spotter, and recon ahead and pick off any targets of opportunity. They used the same weapons as everyone else, but they also had their own magnifying scopes to give them an extra boost over the average rifleman. Most of them were third years with only two second years among them. Their previous semester they'd lost quite a few matches because of little to no recon, and getting suckered into wholesale ambushes on ground that wasn't really reconnoitered and pinned in as the enemy took the objective and finished the round by driving forward and dropping it at their base.

But Kendo and his team mates weren't looking to repeat history. They'd learned their lessons the hard way, and now had a way to fix the biggest of them. Their strategy was to use their expert and independent snipers/scouts to find the enemy or find good ground, cause chaos and knock out the other teams' leaders and force their younger and less experienced replacements to do the job. Then their large and abnormally heavily armed platoons would move to either attack or preferably sucker the enemy into an attack on a team that was built with solid defense as its specialty with their weapons keeping a high rate of fire across the board. As Kendo had explained his new strategy to his team the day before he saw that this managed to give them all some real confidence and instilled a sense of optimism within them.

The equipment that Ooarai's team used was pretty much identical to what the United States Marine Corps used in World War Two. The camo was the same, the packs were the same, the belts were the same, and their helmets were the same. But there were differences between them and the American Marines that had fought Japan in the forties and the communist North Koreans in the fifties. Their bandoliers were different to accommodate the unique strip magazines of the Gewehr 43 rifles they carried. And they had an extra safety feature that let everyone know they were playing a dangerous game. A very tough plexiglass shield covered their face and much of their head wherever the helmet couldn't reach, as the stun rounds they used were very much capable of knocking out teeth and causing blindness. They were especially made for this sport and Kendo was thankful they were, he'd taken a few headshots in his time, including a face shot that would easily have blinded him, especially with some of the weapons that he'd come across in his time on the team.

The bulk of the team held the German designed Gewehr 43 semi-automatic rifle. It had a reputation for being a match for the American M1 Garand and superior to the Russian SVT-41 in terms of reliability. Kendo himself made use of a Gewehr instead of a carbine like the company commander was supposed to. But the real strength of the team came from their automatic weapons. They were using their new M1919A4 air cooled machine guns which were just some cheap mods that replaced the heavy water jackets of their previous M1917's and replaced them with the classic perforated barrels M1919A4's that were much lighter. The most common automatic weapons were their squad automatic weapons, the same old Brens that had been so crucial to Ooarai's Combat Team for the past decades along with the more compact but hard hitting Thompson sub machine gun. And the most numerous weapons were the pistols that every single member of the team was issued were their somewhat cheap Tokarev TT pistols that, like any stun weapon did the job just fine in the right hands.

The rounds were dangerous, but no less dangerous than the tankery teams' simunitions. In fact they were made by the same company. But the difference was that there wasn't hardened carbon alloy standing between the round and the people. However, it still had to do the job of knocking the target out of the match. The way they did this was still unknown, a trade secret as it was called, but it was safe and effective enough for it to be in continued use for decades with Combat Teams and domestic police. These rounds didn't have the range their real life counterparts had, and also had an unintended side effect that gave an appreciated advantage.

The human body was able to form a mild immunity to them after being hit by them so many times. This meant teams who had guys who weren't very good took a lot of hits were usually more able take these hits and guys who were good enough not to take hits were more susceptible to them in return. It was also a similar story with the size of the individuals, bigger guys could take more hits but were bigger targets and the smaller members tended to be on the opposite end of the scale. The vast array of factors one could calculate with this sport made it very much unlike the real thing, but instead made it uniquely its own brand. But with Ooarai, let's just say that most of the team had developed a pretty solid resistance.

But before they got to shooting at each other they had to get trained on these weapons, but even before that Kendo wanted to make sure that his team was in good enough shape to carry these weapons. The Gewehrs were nearly ten pounds, somewhat lighter than the original production line that Germany had made for World War II, but still a damn heavy rifle. In fact everything they had that made up their cool look came with the unfortunate side effect of it being extraordinarily heavy. So, what better way to get used to it than to lug those weapons, equipment, and whatnot across the ship and back? And Kendo had plenty of options to choose from when it came to routes.

"Alright, how about a race?" Kendo finally decided, "Last one's who get back have to set up targets for tomorrow after practice today."

"Uh…destination?" Hoshi asked, egging to get going.

"Come here and see," Kendo said, yanking a map of the Ooarai academy ship from his pocket and held it on the ground. On the piece of paper were several routes that he'd plotted for them to take during their usual running days and each was the same distance. There were four primary routes. Two routes took them from where they were to the front of the ship and back but went outwards port and starboard and ran along the sides of the ship and then they had to return the way that they'd come. It was the same way with the back of the ship although one route was unavailable at the moment due to it running partly through the forests and plains of the training grounds. But Kendo had been doing some plotting on a fifth one that was just his recon team's speed. He'd been doing the math with one particular aspect of the ship, and figured it was a perfect workout for his small and agile recon squad. It took them straight to the top observation deck of the island superstructure that towered over the ship. Going back and forth twice was the equivalent distance as the other routes. But he hadn't tested it quite yet.

"I call the starboard to bow route," Shigeki called out as soon as he saw the map get broken out.

"Any particular reason for that?" Kendo asked curiously, knowing that it was actually one of the longer routes.

"It goes right past this little tea shop where a lot of the girls are always hanging out. Figure it wouldn't hurt us to have them see our best platoon showing what good shape we're in."

"Best platoon my ass," Hoshi groaned, "Kendo if you don't mind I'll take the port to stern route with my platoon."

"Alright it's all yours," Kendo nodded, "Ogura, I guess that leaves third platoon the short route."

"I'm fine with that," Shigeya Ogura, the quiet but very confident and able commander of the youngest platoon in the company, shrugged, "It just means I won't be last."

"And what about the recon squad?" Chishou Koike asked.

He was probably the best shot on the entire team. He was also the oldest on the team by a few months and was a bit of an oddity in the fact that he was actually the former fourth platoon's CO. But the oddity was that he wasn't that great at it, yet he was a great squad leader, and Kendo had astonished some members of the school board and the athletic director by making him his recon squad's leader. He was very skilled at small unit tactics, especially when it came to snipers.

"I've got something special for you guys," Kendo now smiled, "Climb that, twelve times to the highest observation deck and twelve times back here. Everyone else has got four circuits on your own routes."

And to make sure his team understood he pointed right at the island superstructure. And the looks on the faces of every one of the recon squad dropped seeing what they needed to accomplish. And everyone else as well groaned in some way at the knowledge they were probably required to cover at least twelve kilometers in full gear today in the sweltering Pacific heat and humidity. But Kendo was about to make things a bit worse, as he grabbed his rifle and took off the sling from it and tied it around his waist.

"Rifles, SMG's, and SAW's, take off your slings, squad and platoon leaders, if anyone tries putting them back on have them complete their circuits with weapons over their heads," Kendo ordered, "Machine gunners I want those weapons in your hands. It'll suck but you knew that the moment you volunteered for MG duty."

Everyone began to undo their weapons' slings which would mean that they would have to carry their heavy weapons for every single step of the way. Needless to say things were going to suck for the Combat Team, but that's what made them special amongst their peers. Even the girls and their tanks weren't anywhere close to the shape that an average member of a boys Combat Team was in, and was a source of pride for them. Kendo was simply going off of what the playbook simply said you should do as a team leader. The first item was physical fitness, the second was a clear chain of command and discipline to obey that chain, the third was weapons expertise and precision, and the fourth was tactical precision, flexibility, and awareness. These traits were all dependent upon the first, even a brilliant tactician or a precise sniper had trouble thinking straight or lining up the crosshairs when they were sucking wind. When you are tired you make stupid mistakes, mistakes that will get you or your team mates either knocked out of a match or make your team lose the match if the situation is desperate. It was another reason that the Ooarai Combat Team had struggled last year, physical fitness was moved down the list of priorities, and as a result their performance plummeted.

Kendo did not want that happening this year, so he was willing to be the butt of grumbling amongst his team if that meant performance. His job was to help them win matches, and to do that he had to make them do this, and he also had to make himself do it. There's a common thread amongst great commanders, they were tough, and they proved that to their troops. So he knew that he'd have to do everything that he asked of them himself. Or else he would risk losing the respect of his team mates, and that was something that was not acceptable.

"Hey Kendo you joining first platoon?" Shigeki asked, noticing that Kendo hadn't said what group he would be joining.

"You know, I think I'll take the scenic route, here along the edge of the training grounds," Kendo shrugged, pointing at the opposite route that second platoon was taking, "And to make sure you guys know I'm actually doing my own workout I'll turn on my Go Pro," Kendo said, seeing the faces of a few of his team frown, thinking he might be trying to weasel his way out of working out like everyone else. But those faces were changed when they saw Kendo switch on the camera every member of every combat team wore on their shoulder for both safety and accountability.

"Why are you taking that route?" Hoshi asked out of curiosity.

"Well I want to get a look at the terrain to plan some future training exercises. And I figure just one guy won't really get in the girls' way," Kendo shrugged nonchalantly.

"Alright, just don't get run over Kendo," Shigeki grumbled, shaking his head.

"They won't even know I'm there."

* * *

><p>Kendo then grabbed his rifle into both hands and stood up. He sort of winced to himself knowing that he had a heck of a run ahead of him, but he figured better to get started and stop whining about it. Besides, it was going to be eventful, he had a front seat to a tank battle, but with as big as the tank grounds were the likelihood of that were low. But worse odds had ended with the unlikely being the outcome.<p>

The woods was no place for a tank, but that had never stopped them before. The Germans had proved that twice in a period of five years during World War 2, shocking the French High Command and leading to the fall of France, and then again in the Battle of the Bulge the Americans had thought the exact same thing. They'd gotten the shock of their lives, and the bloodiest battle in American history had begun. But more recently Kuromorimine had ambushed Ooarai in the championship match by passing with every one of their massive tanks through the thick woods and led to Anteater's premature knockout.

Miho had taken these experiences to heart, and with the help of Hippo Team she'd looked up previous battles where the tank had done the impossible and passed through previously impassible terrain. Now she was quite keen on trying it out with her team's own lighter and faster tanks. Koala Forest were experts at in tight tank combat, using forests to their advantage. This was odd for tank teams, and Miho remembered her sister getting chewed out by her mother for letting Koala Forest stay in the match for quite a long time during Miho's freshman year. They'd expertly camouflaged their tanks, and refused to come out into the open, knocking out their Panzer III's without much difficulty, but then Maho had deployed their heavily armored Jagdtiger to draw fire and let the heavily armed Tigers and Panthers to knock them out once they fired upon the nearly indestructible behemoth and gave themselves away. But the tongue lashing Miho had to witness her sister take was an unpleasant one, even though they'd won. Miho had no intention of giving Koala Forest a chance, to do that, they needed to master this kind of combat.

So here they were, leading the two tank team of Anglerfish and Rabbit through the thickest part of the forest. It was flat, but the two tanks were slow. But Miho hoped that they'd be able to catch one of the other teams off guard with this new tactic, and so far, she might just have hit paydirt.

"Miho, tank ahead," Hana called out as she swiveled the long barreled seventy-five towards their target. Miho could see the slightly off color of what was a green painted tank coming down a trail.

"Hold your fire," Miho ordered, yanking her binoculars up to her eyes to get a look. Sure enough there was the dark green paint and big side profile of Duck Team's Char B1 bis, "It's the Char B1, Rabbit Team, move up to our left, try and find Anteater."

"Yes commander," the radio called out, and Miho could hear the big American tank moving to its position near her.

"Our gun can easily knock out Mallard from any angle, and they're out of range with their turret. Only their hull mounted seventy-five can do any damage, but they'd have to get a lucky shot after turning their whole tank to face us," Yukari called out, ticking off the strengths and weaknesses of their target to give Miho that much more info to work with in her attack plan.

"Target is in sight commander, Anteater is coming up the trail behind Mallard, range two hundred yards."

"Very well, Yukari, can their gun knock them out?" Miho asked, she'd already done the math, but Yukari was a walking tank dictionary so best to make sure.

"Yes Rabbit's seventy-five can do the job but their thirty-seven is out of range," Yukari said, "But they can disable one of the return rollers or road wheels on the Type 3."

"Okay, Rabbit, fire when Anglerfish fires, make your first shot count."

But before Miho could give Hana the order to fire a loud crack sounded out and the Bhar B1 bis lurched backwards as a high velocity round slammed into it head on. The classic white flag popped up signaling someone had beaten Miho to the punch. But whoever it was had given themselves away, as the Type 3's seventy-five swiveled onto the source of the fire and loosed a round with its own sharp crack.

"Hana, switch targets, find the source."

"It's a seventy-five , I recognize the sound of the gun," Yukari said, "It's either Hippo or Turtle."

"Rabbit, open fire now," Miho ordered, remembering that the Rabbit had been training its guns on the Type 3.

And on her order two consecutive shots were fired from Miho's left. The first shot to fire was the thirty-seven millimeter, which actually managed to strike the Type 3's turret right on the nose, but the small caliber round just bounced right off. The seventy-five struck short, sending a plume of dirt skyward as the girls of Anteater Team now realized they had to get out of dodge, and fired a round from their own gun in retaliation, even though they had no clue where to fire at. Another pair of sharp blasts bracketed the Type 3 as it seemed like both Hippo and Turtle had let loose, trying to finish off their quarry before it could escape.

"Rabbit continue to engage," Miho ordered, sensing that the Anteater was vulnerable.

"Miho I saw where that came from," Hana called out with her eyes to her scope.

"Choose your target and engage," Miho ordered, then turned to look for herself.

She strained to see anything, but then a yellow flash and a pillow of dust deep in the woods on the opposite of the trail that the now smoking Mallard stood upon preceded a yellow tracer came right at the Panzer IV, striking short and to the right. Hana was quick to return fire, sending a powerful shell streaking forward, and struck just left of an unnatural boxy shape that Miho now saw was Hippo's StuG. But she still didn't see where the Turtle was, and she knew that wasn't good.

"Pop smoke, Mako full reverse," Miho ordered, knowing that this was her tank was vulnerable, "Rabbit fall back and join Anglerfish. Let's see if we can lure them out."

"Yes commander. We're right behind you."

The two tanks quickly reversed and found themselves going down a slight hill. Rabbit had deployed its smoke generator, making a thick white cloud that obscured their movements and would create an excellent contrast should the team made of the two assault guns pop their noses through the smoke. Miho half hoped they wouldn't, knowing that would be something she would have to point out to them not to do. So after the two tanks got to the bottom of the low hill and halted Miho kept an eye on the sides of the smoke screen thinking that they'd go around the smoke, but after a minute or two Miho saw nothing and heard nothing.

"Looks like they backed off too Miporin," Saori said from her spot peering out at the area in front of her.

"I think you're right Saori," Miho said, scanning the forest in front of her, "Mako, let's try and find Anteater and see if we can finish off their team."

Then a few more booms and cracks from tank guns echoed in the near distance. Miho surmised, by listening alone, it was the team made up of Leopon and Duck that had fired first. Then the same sounds of dual seventy-fives returning fire told Miho that whatever ambush had been launched was not successful as each shot was accompanied by a low thump as the shells hit the ground. If the shots were successful in striking their targets there would have been a boom or nothing at all as a round ricocheted. But whatever fighting that was going on was quite fierce as the four tanks in the near distance just tore at each other. Miho breathed a sigh of relief that the boys hadn't chosen to come out here, appreciating Kendo's smart decision to just keep his team out of the way until the two of them could talk out an agreement for fairly sharing their training grounds.

_God help anyone that gets in the way out here._

**This one isn't half bad, a far cry from the last time I posted this chapter. As usual any suggestions for funny situations(within reason) are appreciated.**

**Oh I forgot to put this into the last chapter's A/N but I heard that some new footage from the GuP movie/next season was out and checked it out. Any word on the plot or the theme of that? I'm just curious.**

**Next Chapter Preview: Time to get down to business in the fields, and time to show off in the city. That can't possibly go wrong can it?**


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